Apple Marked the 2019 21.5-inch iMac Vintage--The Last Small Intel iMac Gets Repairs Only While Parts Last and Stops at macOS Sequoia, While the $1,499 M4 iMac Waits for a Reported M6

Apple added the iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2019) to its vintage products list on September 15. Apple's vintage and obsolete products page, whose published date is September 15, 2026, lists it under "Mac products vintage worldwide" beside the 27-inch 2019 model, and it is the last 21.5-inch iMac Apple made with an Intel chip. Vintage means Apple stopped selling it more than five and less than seven years ago, so Apple and its authorized service providers still repair it, but only while the parts hold out.

Vintage means repairs while the parts last

Apple's page says products "are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago," and that owners "may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers for a minimum of 5 years" after the last sale, and "for longer, as required by law or for up to 7 years, subject to parts availability." At seven years a product is obsolete, and then "Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, and service providers cannot order parts." MacRumors notes that the 27-inch 2019 iMac sold alongside it was added to the vintage list in July 2025; Apple sold the smaller model for longer, so it took longer to qualify. AppleInsider puts the move to obsolete in 2028, and points out that the old Intel iMacs have upgradeable storage and memory and a socketed CPU, if you are willing to take the display off with the proper tools.

The 2019 iMac was the last 21.5-inch Intel model

Apple's press release of March 19, 2019 gave the 21.5-inch iMac 8th-generation quad-core and, for the first time, 6-core processors, "up to 60 percent faster," and brought Radeon Pro Vega graphics to it for the first time, "up to 80 percent faster"; it started at $1,299, and the non-Retina iMac stayed on sale at $1,099. Apple's tech specs page lists the base machine as a 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i3 with Radeon Pro 555X graphics, 8GB of memory, a 4096-by-2304 display, two Thunderbolt 3 ports and four USB-A ports. It is model identifier iMac19,2, part numbers MRT3xx/A, MRT4xx/A and MHK23xx/A, per Apple's model identification page. AppleInsider observes it shipped in the same slim chassis Apple introduced in 2012, and MacRumors that it preceded the colorful M1 iMac of 2021.

Sequoia is where it stops

Apple's model page gives the 2019 21.5-inch iMac's "newest compatible operating system" as macOS Sequoia. Sequoia got 15.8 on September 14, with the Tahoe 26.7 update we covered in our September 19 item; Apple's security releases page lists it. The same page's entry for macOS 27 Golden Gate names "iMac with Apple silicon (2021 and later)" and no Intel iMac at all. AppleInsider expects Apple to keep sending Sequoia security updates through 2027, which is its expectation rather than anything Apple has published.

The M4 iMac at $1,499 is the only one on Apple's store

The only iMac on Apple's store page on September 20 is the 24-inch M4 model, priced at $1,499 and $1,699. It cost $1,299 until June 25, when 9to5Mac reported Apple's across-the-board increase and Apple's statement that it had "never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly." The M4 iMac arrived in October 2024 and was left alone on August 25, when the Mac mini and the Mac Studio got new chips that Apple says ship September 22. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, as MacRumors relayed on August 23, says the replacement is likely a 24-inch iMac with an M6 and new colors, with no major design change, "close to launch" and expected before the end of the year; an OLED iMac is reportedly several years off. That is a report, not an announcement.

The support page took in the iMac G5 in 2004

The page that retired the 2019 iMac holds the whole line. Under "Mac products obsolete worldwide" it lists the iMac G5 (17-inch) and iMac G5 (20-inch), the line Dana Baggett was waiting on when he wrote our September 2004 note on the iMac support page, three weeks after our August 2004 report from Paris. Then the support page was where a new iMac arrived; now it is where the last small Intel one leaves. If you own a 2019 21.5-inch iMac, we would get anything that is failing fixed before the parts run out, and treat Sequoia as the last macOS it will run.